Are April Fools’ Day Jokes Passé?

HARWINTON, CT – Maybe it’s because Easter and April Fools’ Day fell on the same day this year, but there were seemingly fewer jokes being bandied about online yesterday. Or maybe it’s because there’s so much “fake news” and agenda-driven stories being circulated these days that not much is believable or funny anymore.

In a world where … to use that movie trailer cliché line … consumers only be accept “news” that aligns with their perceptions of that world, it’s harder to differentiate fact from fiction and harder to laugh than it once was. A casual search of some websites, social media pages and the email inbox turned up fewer than a handful of attempts at April Fools’ Day humor.

On the New England Riders’ Facebook page, Ed Conde posted an outlandish claim that New Hampshire legislators had approved a helmet law.

Click and the link and the gag was exposed.

Over the BMW MOA’s Facebook page, Mauricio Lima posted that Yamaha had developed a new engine that looked suspiciously like a BMW boxer engine.

This will never happen.

An email blast from The Vintagent blog provided perhaps the biggest chuckle when it asserted that Harley-Davidson has big plans for 2019:

In a stunning announcement, the Board of Harley-Davidson announced a major shift in their 2019 lineup, with a revolutionary external-combustion steam engine, powered by coal! “It’s clean, it’s green, and it’s all-American’, said H-D President Matt Levatich in a private conversation. They’ve purchased the Cyclone steam engine company, with their 100hp compact steam turbine that burns anything combustible, even coal.

Does mean that instead of saddle bags, new Harley-Davidson models will have matching coal bins? For extra range, maybe riders can fill the top box as well. Imagine the smoke such a model would produce.

If these are the best jokes that are out there, though, maybe it’s time to give up on April Fools’ Day.

– By Bud Wilkinson

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Since 2010, RIDE-CT & RIDE-NewEngland has been reporting about motorcycling in New England and portions of New York.